Joseph Hurtin (Lembit Ulfsak), a simple-minded son of a peasant, is arrested at the scene of a double murder. His hands are covered in blood and his fingerprints are all around the house and yet the indefatigable Commissaire Maigret (Vladimir Samoylov) doesn't believe he is the killer. There's nothing in the terrified, dim-witted Hurtin to suggest him capable of such a beastly crime. So, Maigret arranges for Hurtin to be allowed to escape police custody in order to lead them to the true killer.
"The Price of a Head" was made by the same production company that was behind another, though later Maigret adaptation "Hostages of Fear". That film proved to be something of a pleasant surprise since with its atmospheric direction and excellent leading man it managed to rise above "The Yellow Dog", the lesser Georges Simenon novel it was based on. "The Price of a Head" was, in turn, based on a great Simenon novel, "The Head of a Man", and yet fails to make anything interesting out of it.
This is a distinctly televisual presentation of the novel, straightforward, no-frills and no inventiveness. There's nothing particularly wrong with that approach, but it inevitably results in an unambitious and dull movie. And that's exactly what "The Price of a Head" is. Dull, dull, dull. Every aspect of this production oozes with indifference and cheapness. On television, it would have been fine, but as a theatrical film, such low standards are simply not applicable.
Most of Simenon's novel and its two previous cinematic adaptations revolved around a battle of nerves between Maigret and Radek, the sociopathic nihilist who is the true killer in the story. This time 'round, Nikolai Ilyinsky opts to place Maigret on the sidelines. He spends almost the entire film observing the other characters from the shadows. While this could be an interesting idea in a well-written film, Ilynisky's poor writing results in a series of seemingly endless dialogue scenes between thinly profiled characters.
We have William Crosby (Ivars Kalnins), the oily nephew of the murder victim whose sole distinctive feature is his fake-looking moustache. Then there's his wife Ellen (Irina Tsyvina) whom I kept mixing up with Charlotte (Lyubov Polishchuk), the other female character in the film. That's how interesting either one of them is. Finally, of course, there's Radek, here renamed to Roudek. He is still the same arrogant sociopath from the novels but now he's rather poorly played by Valentinas Masalskis. Made-up like a scarecrow, Masalskis seems to be putting in minimal effort in characterising Roudek. Thus, the fascinating and complex character from the novel is reduced to a comic-book boogeyman in this film.
Nikolai Ilyinsky's adaptation takes some odd twists and turns but eventually ends up at the same place as Simenon's novels. These blind alleys include two additional murders neither of which plays any significant part in the plot. There's also a brief bizarre yet amusing scene in which Maigret plays the saxophone which is probably the most innovative moment in the whole film.
Vladimir Samoylov proves to be a decent Maigret. Wise, calm, and likeable. He is given very little to do, however, so he never quite gets to show off, but I have a feeling that in a better film he would have made a very good lead. Sadly, Maslakis and he share no chemistry whatsoever so the few scenes they do have together fall flat and lack that necessary intensity and sense of danger.
Nikolai Ilyinsky's direction is flat and lifeless. Again, fine for television but a movie requires atmosphere and invention. This film offers neither. And in the few scenes in which there's some suspense, it is immediately undercut by Vladimir Dashkevich's awful score which sounds like an ungodly mixture between an ITC series soundtrack and the "Seinfeld" theme. A bouncy jazz score is not what this movie required.
Ultimately, I am unimpressed by "The Price of a Head", a low-budget and low-ambition take on a Simenon classic. There are good elements in it but they don't amount to much due to Ilyinski's poor screenplay and televisual direction. The plot is oddly jumbled and hard to follow with all its unnecessary diversions and subplots. If you catch it on TV, it'll pass 90 minutes but seeing how the same story has been adapted into a masterpiece of the genre by Julien Duvivier, there's no reason to seek this one out.
